Post navigation

2014 year-in-review

Hello, fellow readers! Over the weekend I tried my hand at making a cool graphic a la River City Reading but admittedly I had some trouble and I’m not sure I’ll do that again… ha! But it turned out okay, if a little small to read. Here’s the stats:

Of 54 authors, 31 were male and 22 were female (with 1 book co-authored by male and female writers)

Did I read diversely? Not as much as I would have liked or thought: only 16% of the books I read were authored by a person of color, and only 30% were non-US American authors.

So I feel all right about the gender split, but I don’t particularly like the numbers there on my diversity in reading. This is the first year I tracked author gender/race/nationality. Here’s the thing, though—I choose books to read first and foremost based on the subject matter or the story, whether those appeal to me. So it’s a bit uncomfortable that I ended up with stats like this on authors unconsciously. But who goes into reading a book with lowered expectations because of a writer’s gender, race, or nationality? And why does it matter? I believe there are many factors into why stats easily become skewed towards white American dudes—marketing, history, and so on. More in-depth, researched blog posts and articles have been written on the subject. I just hope that by observing my own stats here that I can more actively seek out authors of color and non-American authors, and discover some new, awesome books in 2015 and beyond!

You’ve given me a great idea for this year. I usually track my reads; female/male but never thought of tracking by country. This year was 41 female and 9 male. I’ll try to include country this year. Thanks!

Thank you! I didn’t go in-depth, just USA or non-USA authors. It can get very tricky! I think this year I want to get more POC authors read and LGBTQ, either author or subject matter. Have a great year in reading!